Avoidance
by tlw13
Summary: Part 3 of my series. Kat's been avoiding Patrick since the Halloween party and he's had enough. Confronting her, Kat finally admits what went wrong. Disclaimer: I do not own 10 Things I Hate about You or it's characters.
1. The Confrontation

A.N.: Hello Everyone! It's been a while, but I've been busy with schoolwork and still will be for a couple more months. I'm on Spring Break right now, which is how I have some time to put this up. This will have one more part to it. **This is part of my series,** so reading at least the one before it will definitely be helpful! Thanks for R&R! –Erika

* * *

It had been a week since the Halloween party, and though Kat wasn't technically avoiding him, Patrick knew she was cutting short all their meetings and conversations. Yeah, some of the excuses made sense (like driving her popularity-starved sister home), but others were just ridiculous (like been the only one volunteering at the animal shelter that afternoon, and no, male humans were not allowed to help out, thanks for asking). So he decided to take desperate measures, not that he was ever desperate for female company. Being a Friday, he knew that little Stratford would want to go out, which most likely meant that Kat would be driving her somewhere. The question was where, which was why he was slouching behind a column right outside the girl's locker room. He would have shocked himself if he realized he didn't really care that each time a girl opened the door to leave, he could see a few half dressed cheerleaders inside, but he was too focused on finding his prey to really notice. Finally the right blonde cheerleader (or was it still mascot?), headed out of the locker room, blessedly alone. Once she walked past him and toward a semi-private alcove, he called her name.

"Hey, Stratford."

"Patrick! Um, what can I do for you? And if the answer is cook myself or one of my friends, then I'm going to have to regrettably decline."

Unbelievable. She still thought he might be a cannibal.

"Delicious as that sounds, I wanted to know if you planned on dragging Kat anywhere, tonight?"

Bianca looked up at him in shock. She knew Patrick Verona had come to her sister's rescue at the party, but she couldn't make herself believe that her scary enough sister had decided to befriend the even scarier bad boy. Or that said bad boy was actually asking her about Kat's plans. _Then again, he definitely looks like Kat's type. Hopefully this one doesn't end up like the last._

"Dragging will not be necessary. Kat agreed to go to the mall with me. I need a new outfit for Thanksgiving, and it's never too early to shop. Kat's been wanting to pick up some books at the bookstore, so she plans to head there and then meet back up with me when I'm done."

"When's this happening?"

"Cameron's mom is giving me a ride home. I'm going to change, and then we'll head over. I've got plans later on tonight, so we had to make it early."

"Alright, thanks."

"Your welcome."

"Don't tell your sister we spoke."

Bianca gave him a big smile, which kinda freaked him out.

"Oh, I won't. Kat's been in a weird mood all week. Maybe a surprise is just the thing she needs." And with that, she turned and walked towards the parking lot. Patrick took a different route in order to get to his motorcycle. Being seen with the perky girl was not on his list of things to do. Besides, he had some time to waste before heading to Padua Mall.

* * *

Kat Stratford couldn't believe her good luck. She was able to get a parking spot right in front of her sister's favorite clothing store, which happened to be only two stores down from the bookstore. Once inside the store, she immediately caught sight of one of the books she was there to buy. Picking up the last copy of Desert Flower, she continued to the back of the store, where all the empty notebooks were displayed. She needed three new ones: one for her sketches, one for her prose, and one for her poetry and lyrics. She was about to pick up a promising looking second notebook, when she heard a way-too-loud-cough-to-be-real from right behind her. Turning around, she held her books in front of her like a shield, before looking up into Patrick's eyes.

She had been spending as little time as possible near him for the last week, not wanting to talk about what had happened at the party. She was embarrassed enough as it was, she didn't need him wanting to discuss it. She hadn't wanted to lie to him, so she had made plans ever afternoon of the week. She had only fibbed a couple times (though telling him no males could volunteer at one of the places was a little past fibbing), so she didn't feel too guilty. Seeing the look in his eyes though, her luck had changed.

"Fancy meeting you here, Katerina."

Enjoying her light blush, but not the wary look in her eyes, Patrick kept his smirk small. He had only been in the store a few minutes before Kat had arrived, so he was just able to sneak to the back where she wouldn't notice him. Realizing she looked too cute with a serious look on her face while trying to choose notebooks, he decided to confront her sooner rather than later. Looking at the cover of the book she had just picked out, he came to two conclusions. One, she had good taste in cover art. The black background went well with the dark colors of the musically notes lined up across whole front cover. Two, they could probably compare their work for hours, if he ever admitted to such a creative hobby, and if she ever let him see some of her work. Deciding he'd work on that later, he finally spoke up. She did not look too happy to see him, but he could care less at this point. He was going to figure out what the hell was wrong with her.

"Stalking me, Verona? Shame on you."

"Ah, we know that I am not the stalker in the room. That would be you."

"If I remember correctly, which I always do, you were the one that followed me to a dance, a party, and now a bookstore." The moment the words left her mouth, Kat decided that her luck had just officially ended. Being surprised by his appearance and angered by his accusation, she had blurted out the first thing on her mind, which was the exact topic she didn't want to discuss. Looking at Patrick's face, she knew not talking was no longer an option.

"What a perfect opening, Kat. I couldn't have done it better myself. Actually, who am I kidding, of course I could have. But, since you brought up the topic already, let's talk about the party, and why you have been avoiding me since it."

"I need to pick out a third notebook."

"You can do that after we talk. Come on, pay for what you have now and I'll buy you some tea at the organic place a few stores down."

Deciding to pick her battles (and knowing talking about it was inevitable if she wanted to have any guiltless free time), Kat walked over to pay, but not before giving a final shot.

"The fact that you know about TeaPot totally ruins you image. I wonder what our classmates would think if they knew Patrick Verona was a lover of tea."


	2. The Conversation

An elderly lady drinking her herbal tea looked at the pair of teens sitting in the farthest table in the teashop and wondered what the handsome young man had said to cause such a look of horror to appear on the beautiful young lady's face. She couldn't know that he had just asked her if she was scared of him. If she could read the young non-couple's minds, she would have smiled lightly and remembered what it was like when she had experienced the stirrings of love for the first time. Since she couldn't read their minds, she mentally sent some good vibes their way before heading back home to her husband of 50 years. The teens in question continued their conversation without noticing their audience leave.

"Of course I'm not scared of you, Patrick. Why would you think that?"

"Well, Kat, let's see. We agreed to keep our budding friendship under wraps so as to not give the gossip hounds anything to talk about. Some assholes attack you at a party where I promised to protect you. I finally arrive and get them off you while a crowd of our classmates watch. You barely speak to me all week, and lie to get away from me. Fear is the most common response to my presence at Padua High, and after being hurt by some guys I can understand you believing some of the hype about me."

Kat was surprised that Patrick was being so forthcoming about his thoughts on what happened at the party and this past week. She wondered if the rumors about him bothered him more than he let on. She decided to get to the bottom of one of his statements before going into any details on her feelings. _Putting off the inevitable is a stupid idea, but I want to finish my tea in peace._

"You never promised to protect me. You only signed up for helping me watch my sister, which you did."

"I might not have made the promise aloud, but it was still made." Patrick replied, tensely. Kat realized that he felt guilty, so she tried to put him at ease. She knew it wasn't his fault; he had saved her, for goodness sake.

"Patrick, while I appreciate the sentiment. I didn't ask you to protect me, so you have nothing to feel guilty about. I…"

"I don't feel guilty."

"Sure you don't. You're not exactly Joe Cool, Verona. I can see guilt when it's right in front of me. You have no reason to feel that way. I was the one stupid enough to follow him into that room."

Kat looked away when saying this last part, not wanting Patrick to see the embarrassment in her eyes. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't the only perceptive one at the table. Patrick realized he was finally getting to the reason for following Kat to the mall in the first place. He was surprised by her embarrassment. She hadn't been stupid, she had been worried about her sister. If he had a sibling, he would have done the same thing, screw the consequences. And that's exactly what he told her. She looked back at him in surprise.

"You don't have any siblings?"

"Nope. My mom decided one of me was more than enough."

"And your dad?"

Kat hesitated before asking, remembering the picture she had found on the bathroom floor and Patrick's reaction when he realized it wasn't in his bag. She had never brought up his family in any of their conversations, hoping he would open up without her having to pry. She took his voluntary mention of being an only child and having a mom as a sign that she could question him. She noticed Patrick's muscles tense, before he let out a deep breath and relaxed his shoulders.

"I don't have a dad." And that was that. He continued. "But back to my point, you weren't being stupid. You were willing to do whatever it took to keep your sister safe, including going into a situation that was risky. You shouldn't feel embarrassed."

"Yeah well, I'm supposed to be able to take care of myself. I worked my ass off to make sure I was never vulnerable again."

Kat looked into her empty cup, and then closed her eyes. She pushed back memories of another time when a guy had hurt her, that time emotionally and mentally. Taking a deep breath, she looked back into Patrick's eyes and tried to get across her need to keep some of her thoughts to herself for now. She watched a frown form on his face, but it cleared after a few seconds and a look of acceptance appeared in its wake. She decided she could get used to having silent conversations with Patrick Verona, but didn't plan on dropping too many of her shields just yet. Protection was necessary; she had learned that the hard way, multiple times.

Patrick realized there was a lot more to this story than he realized, but he knew she wouldn't tell him everything in the middle of a mall, not to mention after so little time as friends. He knew she understood he was only accepting her silence for the moment. The time would come when she would have to share more of her darker thoughts. He wasn't going to be the only one letting down some walls. Deciding to just concentrate on the situation directly at hand, he responded.

"It's impossible to never be vulnerable, Kat. We just have to push through the tough times to get to the good ones."

"Look who's getting philosophical."

"Hah, you haven't seen me being philosophical. You'll know without a doubt when that happens. For now, just tell me that you aren't going to hide from me behind some stray dogs or naked mole rats again."

"I wasn't hiding. I was helping those beings that are underappreciated by society. There's a difference."

"You keep telling yourself that, Stratford. Now that that's settled, I've got somewhere to be. You heading back to the bookstore?"

Kat got up from the table as well, nodding her head.

"I'll walk you back."

"Well aren't you quite the gentleman." Kat smirked, hiding her apprehension about where Patrick and she were heading with this flirtatious friendship. They walked quickly to the bookstore.

"Like I said - you haven't seen anything yet."

With that, he gave a short wave and sauntered towards the closest exit.

* * *

"So did anything exciting happen at the bookstore?"

Kat gave her sister a weird look before turning her eyes back on the road.

"No. Did you find your outfit?"

Bianca frowned, wondering if Patrick had forgotten where they'd be.

"You didn't bump into anyone?"

Kat started in surprise, but kept her eyes on the road.

"I told you. No."

Bianca smiled to herself, knowing he had showed. Kat wouldn't be so calm about her prying if she hadn't been in a good mood.

"Oh, ok then. Well my top is super cute! It's baby pink with puffy sleeves and a v-neck. Not to puffy, 'cause that'd be so last year, but…"

Kat zoned her sister's details about her outfit out and thought about her conversation with Patrick. Next time, she was uncovering some of his secrets. _I wonder what his Thanksgiving plans are…_

A.N. Sorry this took so long to update. I probably won't be writing again until my classes finish at the end of April. Hope you enjoyed it!


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